‘Redundancies are inevitable’

The 30 closures across the UK account for a tenth of BrightHouse’s stores, and has resulted in significant job losses.

However, the company is aiming to offer new jobs within the business to as many of the 350 affected workers as possible. However, bosses have warned that redundancies are inevitable.

A spokesman for the business said, “We are working to redeploy as many people as possible into alternative roles, but redundancies will be inevitable.

“We will be speaking to all customers affected by the store closures and either transferring them to another local store or serving them online.“

The cuts comes ahead of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) introducing a cap in interest rates that rent-to-own firms, such as BrightHouse, will be able to charge their customers from April.

The cap is to be introduced after the FCA recently found around 40,000 people were paying an additional £23 million per year on goods such as televisions and fridges, due to overpricing and excessive interest charges.